A tele/pan camera is a camera that enables telephoto and panoramic prints to be produced from film frame exposures made without the corresponding telephoto and panoramic lenses by coding the film at the time of exposure to identify variations from normal processing to be taken subsequently during printing in order to simulate the same desired effect.
A pseudo telephoto print is one that is made from a central portion of an exposure having the same width-to-length ratio (e.g., 31/2:5) as that of the whole exposure recorded by the camera at the time the picture is taken. During the printing process, the frame negative image is masked at upper, lower, left and right marginal zones, leaving the central portion unobscured to be printed with increased magnification for obtaining an enlargement of normal print size. The enlargement has the same width-to-length ratio as that of the non-masked central portion. Thus, in response to coding the film at the time the exposure is made, the central portion of the exposure is magnified at the time of printing beyond the normal magnification for the camera lens employed to take the picture, and the resulting print will have a telephoto or close-up format appearance.
A pseudo panoramic print is one that is made from a narrow portion of an exposure having a greater width-to-length ratio (e.g., 1:3) than that of the original exposure recorded by the camera. During the printing process, the negative frame image is masked at upper and/or lower marginal zones, leaving the narrow portion unobscured. An enlargement is then made of the narrow, non-masked portion to provide a print having the same width-to-length ratio as that of the narrow portion. Thus, in response to coding the film at the time the exposure is made, the field of view is adjusted at the time of printing, to provide a print which has a panoramic or elongate format appearance.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,844 discloses a method of making a print of a selected portion of a subject to be photographed. The method comprises the steps of: viewing the subject in the viewfinder of a camera; manually adjusting mechanical masking member visible in the viewfinder to frame a selected portion of the subject; exposing the film in the camera to obtain a latent image of the subject; encoding the exposure on the film with indicia representative of the selected portion of the subject; processing the film to obtain a negative of the latent image of the subject; and sensing the indicia to make a print of the selected portion of the subject from the negative.
When the selected portion of the subject has the same relative position in the viewfinder as a corresponding portion of the exposure, enlargement of the portion in the negative will provide a pseudo telephoto effect similar to the actual telephoto effect provided by a telephoto lens. Thus, a pseudo telephoto print can be made during the printing process from an exposure taken without a telephoto lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,102 discloses a method of making a pseudo panoramic print from an exposure. According to the method, a window in the viewfinder of a camera has its upper and/or lower marginal zones masked off by an appropriate insert to provide a viewing area with a width-to-length ratio greater than 1:2, and preferably 1:3. Exposures are taken with the viewfinder window partially masked and, during the printing of the negative, the negative image is correspondingly masked to provide a non-masked portion having the same width-to-length ratio as that of the unobscured portion of the viewfinder window. Printing paper with a similar width-to-length ratio is used. Prints can thus be obtained which have a panoramic or elongate format without using a panoramic lens.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,111 discloses an improved exposure control system for a tele/pan camera. An exposure control photocell is provided to measure the brightness of light reflected from the subject to be photographed. Light control means in the camera controls the amount of reflected light reaching the photocell. The reflected light is controlled in accordance with the amount of light available to a selected pseudo telephoto or pseudo panoramic field of view reduced from the actual field of view of the camera objective lens. Thus, in a tele/pan camera the portion of the film frame covered by the selected pseudo field of view can be more accurately exposed. No consideration is given to choice of shutter speed based on pseudo format selection, beyond normal consideration of the light available.
In a tele/pan camera, the effect of camera or subject motion is more pronounced when the magnification of the exposed negative is increased during printing, as required to obtain the desired pseudo telephoto or pseudo panoramic effect. So, in addition to adjusting the exposure for the amount of light available to a pseudo format field of view (i.e., the field of view subsequently printed), as contrasted with the actual field of view seen by the objective lens (i.e., the field of view of the full exposure), it is desirable to employ a shorter exposure time or faster shutter speed when pseudo telephoto or pseudo panoramic format is selected.